It includes the stories of 'The Children of Lir', 'Deirdre of the Sorrows', 'Setanta', 'The Salmon of Knowledge', 'Fionn and the Dragon', 'Oisin in Tir na n-Og'. Sensitively written, these stories can be read to or by children of every age. This book will also prove popular with adults, re-kindling magical stories from their own childhood. Other books by Yvonne Carroll Beginner's Irish Dictionary Irish Legends for Children Leprechaun Tales The Little Leprechaun Library The Very Little Leprechaun Tale
This book has been graded for interest at 9-12 years.
There are 64 pages in this book.
It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.
This book was published in 1997 by Gill .
Yvonne Carroll is the author of the best-selling Leprechaun Tales. In The Very Little Leprechaun Book, she presents asimplified version of one of the stories from that collection.
This book contains the following stories:
Setanta
The Salmon of Knowledge
Oisin in Tir Na Nog
Oisin fell in love with the flame-haired maiden Niamh, whose father was the king of Tir na nOg. They crossed the sea on Niamh’s white mare together to reach the magical land of Tir na nOg where they lived happily. After three hundred years had passed Oisin succumbed to homesickness and returned on the magical white mare to his tribe, the Fianna, in Ireland. But all his family and friends had long passed away, and Oisin with heavy heart turned back to the west. On the way back his mare’s hoof caught a stone, and Oisin thought to himself that if he carried the rock back with him to Tir na nOg, it would be like taking a bit of Ireland back with him. But when he leant down to retrieve the rock he stumbled and fell. As soon as his foot hit the ground he aged three hundered years. The mare panicked and ran into the sea, heading back to Tir na nOg without him. However, some fishermen had seen Oisin’s rapid ageing and assumed magic was involved. They took him to see Saint Patrick, where Oisin told his story before passing into the afterlife.
Deirdre of the Sorrows
The Children of Lir
In the North Sea a jealous queen transforms King Lir's three children into swans, doomed to spend nine hundred years tossed by the icy waves.
Fionn and the Dragon
